Serap Aksoy PhD

Biographical Info

Serap Aksoy, PhD, came to Yale as a postdoctoral fellow in 1982 and worked her way to Professor in 2002. From 2002-2010, she headed the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. She serves as editor in Chief of the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and chaired both the NIH/NIAID Vector Biology Study Section (2010-2012) and the WHO/TDR, Molecular Entomology BL5 (2008-2012). Dr. Aksoy's lab aims to understand the biology of host-pathogen interactions--in particular in tsetse flies, which transmit African trypanosomes and harbor multiple symbiotic microbes. A graduate of Vassar College (BA) and Columbia University (PhD), Dr. Aksoy has lectured around the world, and maintains ongoing collaborative research programs with the National Livestock Research Institute (NaLIRRI) and Gulu University in Uganda, and Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI) in Kenya. The laboratory at Yale focuses on the development of novel methods to ultimately reduce tsetse populations in the field, or to reduce their ability to transmit disease. Studies in Uganda focus on the epidemiology of Sleeping Sickness disease. Together with BRI and her colleagues at Yale, Dr. Aksoy has been involved in an international training program to expand research capacity in tsetse-transmitted diseases in east Africa. As the EIC of PLOS NTDs, she works to build research and publication capacity for global neglected tropical diseases.

International Activity

Tsetse Transmitted African TrypanosomiasisKikuyu,
Kenya(2011)Tsetse transmitted Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) has re-emerged and poses a major public health crises in Sub Sahara. There are no vaccines and efficacious drugs for control of parasite infections in the mammalian host. In contrast, control of the vector insect tsetse populations can effectively break the disease cycle. Extensive resources have been generated in the developed country laboratories with respect to tsetse genomics/genetics that can immediately improve the existing vector control tools, while promising the development of future strategies. The ability of products resulting from high-tech research to reach field implementation stages requires the presence of endemic country scientists who are. well-informed in the full potential of the developed technologies, who can evaluate the pros and cons of these solutions, and who can present these perspectives to the general public and to the involved government agencies. In this training program, Yale University scientists are working with the Trypanosomiasis Research Center (TRC) in Kenya to strengthen the biomedical capacity and to acquire and implement the recent advances in applied vector genomics, genetics and bioinformatics to enhance the existing Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) control/management tools. TRC has been identified by a World Health Organization competitive initiative as the lead organization in Africa to coordinate the continent-wide capacity strengthening activities for HAT. A regional network (Eastern African Network of Trypanosomoses, EANETT) consisting of the lead institutions with governmental mandates to work on HAT in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Malawi has already made considerable progress in building south-south initiatives. The specific objectives of this program are to: 1) Develop expertise at TRC and their associates to address mechanisms of parasite transmission biology, genetics of vector competence, population biology, and bioinformatics. 2) Strengthen collaborations with the laboratories in the endemic countries in Africa to enable transfer of new technologies and tools relevant for HAT control and promote their integration into the on-going disease control programs. 3) Develop training modules (seminars, workshops and mentored research activities) to increase research capacity for HAT in Africa with a specific focus on vector biology.

Evidence Based Control Strategies of Sleeping Sickness VectorsKikuyu,
Kenya(2011)This Fogarty International Research Collaboration award (FIRCA) proposal is on tsetse fly population genetics in order to support the ongoing Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) control activities in East Africa. The parent grant (NIAID R01Al068932, 01/01/2008 to 12/31/2012) addresses the molecular and ecological aspects of the two HAT disease belts (gambiense and rhodesiense) in Uganda with a focus on population and evolutionary genetics of tsetse flies and their parasites and endosymbionts. The co- investigator of this FIRCA, Dr. Johnson Ouma, is an experienced tsetse population geneticist who is now the head of tsetse genomic research and Deputy Director of the national Trypanosomiasis Research Center (TRC) in Kenya. Kenya is at risk of HAT outbreaks due to ongoing epidemics in neighboring Uganda and increased movement of people and cattle (known reservoirs for Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense). Earlier tsetse control efforts in the Lake Victoria basin and in the southern Rift Valley were unsustainable and these regions rapidly became repopulated. It is unknown if the extant G. pallidipes vector populations in Lambwe originated through reinvasion from neighboring populations, or through incomplete elimination of local populations that existed below thresholds of detection. Efforts are underway once again to eliminate G. pallidipes from Lambwe valley and surrounding areas. This project has three aims to: 1) estimate rates of gene flow and degrees of genetic differentiation among G. pallidipes populations around the Lake Victoria basin and in southern Rift Valley, 2) estimate local levels of temporal genetic differentiation and dynamics of G. pallidipes populations from the Lambwe and Nguruman valleys and 3) understand the circulating trypanosome parasite diversity isolated from flies/humans and known reservoir animals in the Lambwe valley. Results will help understand the breeding pattern of G. pallidipes populations in East Africa, and thus identify populations that can serve as potential sources of immigrants into Nguruman and Lambwe. This knowledge is important to the ongoing and planned tsetse control programs and can help develop methods for inclusion or exclusion of adjacent populations to the target population during vector suppression efforts. Knowledge on parasite strains in circulation will also help better understand disease risk and epidemiology.

Genetics - Yale-Fudan Collaborative ProgramChina(2008)The Yale-Fudan Collaborative Program is a co-training program between Yale and Fudan University. Within this program, pre- and postdoctoral students from the Genetics Department of Fudan University conduct research at Yale for a two-year period and return to China to receive their degrees from Fudan. Four students have received their doctoral degrees through this program and two post-doctoral fellows have completed training.